


Jim in Wonderland

by Corvidae_Corvus



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: AU, Alice in Wonderland, Experimental, Gratuitous Violence, Jim in Wonderland, M/M, Post/Pre/Peri Reichenbach, Reichenbach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-30
Updated: 2012-09-30
Packaged: 2017-11-15 08:19:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/525142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corvidae_Corvus/pseuds/Corvidae_Corvus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wonderland AU<br/>The Queen is constantly trying to find interesting things to do, but in the end, the only way to live involves ending the world. (A very, very surreal take on Jim, heavily Reichenbach influenced. And, really, maybe it's not as alternate universe as you think...)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jim in Wonderland

**Author's Note:**

> ((For your audio pleasure. (Spotify) http://open.spotify.com/user/1227759492/playlist/524IwGSbcusAbcY9osts8A ))

    The Queen woke with quite the commotion, limbs flailing about, sending dried leaves and the tail end of his royal robe flying about. His crown had rolled off to the side, his scepter was sticking out of the ground a little and his head was pounding in such pain.   
  
    "My head is pounding," muttered the Queen as he put his head in his hands, rubbing his palms into his short, black hair. It subsided a little and he was able to look around, see what there was to see. It was a clearing, a dark one lined with trees and grass covering and some little daisies every now and again. The Queen wondered what this place was; he knew it though he hadn't been here before.  
   
    The Queen stood, retrieving his crown to place on his head and then his scepter, removing it easily from the ground. He readjusted his royal robes, brushing away dirt, and maybe it clashed with his white shirt and jeans, but the Queen found nothing wrong with that. What was wrong was this place. He didn't like it. He didn't like the light from the sky, he didn't like the grass, he didn't like the flowers and he didn't like the trees.  
  
    So, the Queen walked forward, but once he had passed the line of trees, he only had a meter or two of ground left. Beyond was a thick, dense swamp, all grime and muck with nothing but trees jutting up from the muddy black. Dear, didn't it look deep? Deep enough to suck and swallow someone whole, easily. The Queen frowned as he started to follow the edge, only to find that this clearing was something of a safe, circular island surrounded by a sea of swamp.  
  
    The Queen decided to cross the island lengthwise to see if he could leave that way, but paused when he found something new in the island clearing. It was a backpack, a bit of a ratty one. He did not like it. He passed by it and once again ran into the edge. Nothing but swamp. Perhaps if he crossed the island widthwise it would be different. And so, the Queen tried this. In the middle another new thing had appeared, a small, old radio. He did not like it.  
  
    The Queen had a snarl on his face as he glared at the two items he did not like and crossed the island widthwise. There was, once again, nothing but swamp. Perhaps diagonalwise would be different, and so he cut the island diagonally, once more intersecting the middle. In the middle this time was a bed, a small and simple one with horrid plaid sheets. He did not like this bed.  
  
    Frustrated, the Queen kicked the old radio hard, sending it flying and smashing against a tree, but no sooner than his foot was coming back down to the ground, there was no radio smashing against a tree and there was no radio no longer there. Instead, it was back in the spot it had always been, perfectly intact. The Queen did not like this at all, and decided he would not stay here any more.  
  
    The Queen moved over to the edge of the little island in the middle of the swamp once more, determined to not go back, leave for ever. He did not like this little island any more. So, he looked beyond, though there was nothing he could see except trees that jutted out of the swamp. They looked dead looking, so dead and plain.   
  
    The Queen ignored the trees, tried to see beyond the swamp, walked around the edge carefully. He could see no end to the swamp at all. Maybe if he was a bit higher, he could see it. He was able to find a tree sticking out of the muck that he could reach if he stood on his toes, so he stuck his scepter under his arm and reached out with a hand to grab hold of the thin trunk. However, the moment he placed his hand on the bark, there was a blood curdling scream and a splash in the mucky water.  
  
    The Queen had recoiled, not wanting to get his robe very dirty, but opened his eyes quickly again. There in the swamp was now a body that was floating face down in the muck. How it got there, well, it obviously must have been the Queen's doing. Somehow, but the how didn't really matter. He put his foot on the body, pushing down and finding it to be about as buoyant as a log. He could use this to get away from the small island!  
  
    The Queen placed his foot on the body and put his weight entirely on top of it, glad to see that it could indeed hold his body weight. He was all smiles as he reached over to touch another tree, and it too seemed to fall from a small height, flopping forward onto its front. Once more, it was buoyant, and he stepped to that one.   
  
    This was oh so much fun, and he heard the trees start to cry as he continued on his path out of the swamp. He noticed that there were small streams of sticky, slow blood that sprayed wherever he touched, and he could not only create bodies out of trees, but bodies out of other plants. He caught a frog once, and it became much larger, so large and it was quite comfortable to dance a little on while he was standing on it.  
  
    Eventually, the crying included begging and pleading, and he enjoyed it so very much. The Queen laughed, calling out now as his bloody hand touched a new thing, "You get to die now! And you! And you and you and you! I like your blood, give it to me! Of course I want your body, let me have it!"  
  
    The Queen was slowly making his way across the swamp, leaving the tiny island far behind. The edge was quite far away, but with this new method of travel he was able to get to the end with relative ease. At this point, the whole swamp wailed in pain and sadness and it was quite loud but the Queen didn't mind too much.   
  
    The Queen stepped off of the final body, but the edge of his royal robe caught some of the muck as well. Not only this, but there was sticky blood all over his shirt now, and on his jeans, and even on his crown. This was far, far too dirty for the Queen's tastes, and his nose crinkled as he tried to wipe some of the blood off and squeeze away some of the muck at the bottom of his robe.  
  
    "I don't like getting my hands very dirty," he said to himself, huffing as he pushed down the hem of his robe, taking scepter back in hand as he started to look around. Maybe he would find a place with clean water to wash himself up at.   
  
    Well, it was certainly no maybe, because The Queen did find just that, though the way the water was filled did not make it appealing. The water was a spring, hot and bubbling with a small and beautiful waterfall, but the water was filled with dogs! Dogs of all kinds and sizes, but they were all just dogs. Not only this, they all seemed very lazy and were making such a noise!  
  
    So much barking made The Queen cover his ears, wincing as he glared at them. Why couldn't they all just stop?! He wanted to touch them, turn their litle doggie bodies into real bodies that float, but he didn't think that would work, so much barking. When he got close, they would not only bark, but bark at him!  
      
    The Queen glared at them from a few feet away, arms crossed over his chest, but they didn't seem too worried about him for now. What they did seem worried about was when one of the dogs lept out of the pool, heading to the slope of where the waterfall came from. They made such a racket then, but still didn't move out of the pool. The Queen needed the pool, the whole pool, they needed to move.   
      
    The one dog was suddenly at the top of where the waterfall fell from, anf there he started running around a tree that sat on top, a tree with some very tasty fruit, quite tasty, they must be full of sugar and blood and good things. But instead of just taking the fruit, the dog suddenly stopped and started barking at the tree. Have you ever heard of a more ridiculous thing?   
  
    Oh, but finally the dog started to climb the tree with relative ease, catching a fruit in its jaws and pulling it down. But still, it did not eat the fruit! It put it down on the ground and started running in a circle again; such a stupid dog! Just eat it already! Finally, finally the dog took the fruit in his mouth, but no, even now he didn't eat it and instead brought it back down the rocks to the pool below. He placed it in the water, started licking at it as it bobbed there, and The Queen was forced to yell in frustration, "Just eat it!"  
  
However, no one could hear The Queen over the dogs. Finally, finally after chasing the fruit all around the pool the dog ate the fruit in a few bites, not even savoring it! The dogs just continued to bark, maybe they were happy but The Queen could only hear noise as he was able to slip by unnoticed to the top of the waterfall himself. He walked up to the tree and, just as it should be, he plucked the fruit right off. He brought it to his lips and bit down through the soft skin.  
  
Yes, it was filled with blood and sugar sweet and it dripped down his chin as he hummed, watching it spill to the ground. Yes, this is how you take fruit and eat it, not like a dog at all. The dogs however seemed very angry, and they got out of the pool as a large group, running up to the top of the waterfall, such stupid dogs. They looked so angry now that they were circling The Queen, the angry, glaring Queen, but they seemed afraid now. So amusing how afraid they were of something so simple?  
  
One though, one was very bold, and it got closer to The Queen, all teeth and growls and dripping saliva. The Queen just glared, pointing his scepter at the dog, "Off with his head!" However, nothing happened, and shouldn't it? How odd it was, The Queen thought. Then, the dog lunged, trying to bite at The Queen's sacred shin, but he was not having that, not at all. He brought his scepter down hard over the head of the dog and it fell with a yelp, his skull crushed in.  
  
With the dog's skull crushed now, it was plain to see that the dog was much like the inside of the fruit The Queen found so delightful! What a wonderful thing to see, so The Queen wasted no time digging his hand into the dog, pulling out the sweet fruits, like sugared blueberries and creamed strawberries, and tasting to his heart's content. The dogs were still ever so loud, but they did not matter now because they were very afraid of The Queen and his lack of regard for rules.  
  
The dogs seemed so far away when The Queen had finished with his meal, some had gone into the water. Now however he was certainly a mess and he scowled at his clothes. He would have to find someone who could behead people for him. He walked down to the pool again, shooing away the dogs that had returned there, finally giving himself some peace. The Queen sighed as he walked into the water, watching as it almost magically washed away every bit of blood that was on his skin and clothes and hair again. He looked like royalty once more, but everyone knows looks are only as good as you can throw them.  
  
The Queen looked about when he stepped back out of the pool, finding himself almost entirely dry as he did. Some dogs were barking at him from far away, but now the Queen giggled at them. Such stupid, silly dogs. It was time to move on now though, they were only pretty and interesting for so long that it didn't last long anyway. He hummed as he stepped into the woods, going to find his beheader to feed him more fruit.  
  
Eventually, after some walking that was long but not very much at all, he found himself coming to a clearing. It was a very bright clearing, and it seemed like it had a long table there. Most importantly, it looked interesting. Very interesting, for no reason at all for such a normal table.  
  
    As the Queen approached the table, he could see it was piled high with various foreign teapots, plates, spoons, every inch of the wooden table just apparently sitting in this clearing. There were chairs, some tipped over and some sitting askew, all except for one. In it sat a man with a hat, a fairly large one, smoking a hookah next to his chair.   
  
    He didn't move even as the Queen walked boldly over to look at what he was drinking occasionally in between smoking and staring at the sky. As the cup was placed in its saucer, it looked like tea, but it was almost half filled with sand. In fact, most of the plates had a great deal of sand in them. The Queen's fingers nudged against the various plates, bowls and cups.  
  
    Apparently it disturbed the hat man's thoughts considering he looked down from his sky gazing, and he leveled a blank look at the Queen, almost faintly surprised to see him there. He didn't seem to be disturbed by this fact, even when the Queen looked back at him, tapping his scepter against his own shoulder impatiently. Suddenly, his hand easily went to another tea cup and saucer, putting it toward The Queen.  
  
    "Atawaddo ba'ada al shaai," spoke the man in the hat before he put the sand-laden tea down and picked up a plate of what looked like flat... things. "Aan nani," he placed it on the Queen's arm, fast as anything considering The Queen barely could track that he was doing it. He lifted a another plate, putting it near the Queen, "Aan sher berinj. Hm az aan bsaar khuwb, shma ma twanad hr ake az anha ra dashth bashd, shma hmchenan ma twanad agur shma ma khwahad saguar ma keshad."  
  
    Again, the plate was suddenly placed on his arm, balanced when it was placed though the Queen had to focus to keep it there. The Queen frowned as the man was already continuing to talk and go for another plate before he just let the plates fall to the ground, the glass shattering into many different pieces. "I don't /care/ about these things," the Queen said with an impatient look, "I care about this."  
  
    He reached toward the man's side, removing what looked like an elaborately carved derringer and lifting it close to his face to examine with a smile. The hat man just looked at it, then back at him, giving a small grin suddenly. "My gun. Can blow a guy's head clean off."  
  
    The Queen got an evil grin on his face as he cocked back the hammer and leveled it at the bottom of the man's large hat. The man's grin didn't fade and this made the Queen tip his head a little. "What, you're not afraid of possibly dying? At least everyone here tries not to die."  
  
    The man gave a small shrug, "I mean, my line of work, it's always out there. You probably don't even hear it when it happens, right?"  
  
"And your line of work is?"  
  
"I kill people."  
  
"You're sitting here."  
  
Again, the hat man shrugged, "No more people to kill. There were more like me. We all tried to have dinner instead of kill people." He gestured to the table, "Some got away, most of us died. To each other. I'm the last one."  
  
The Queen glanced around a little, not seeing any blood, not even old blood. Compared to the rest of the places he'd seen, there wasn't much blood at all. "I don't believe you."  
  
The man took a slow, bubbly inhale of the hookah, derringer still leveled at him, before he answered, "I'm a tiger. I ate everything."   
  
The Queen paused a moment, then nodded in understanding. He placed his scepter and the gun in a sandy bowl of rice, then reached down, taking the hat man by the front of his clothes and pulling him up to standing position with a grunt. The man didn't fight it, but did look down at him with a confused look.  
  
"You're the Queen's official executioner now. I can't say 'off with their heads' and have nothing happen. I'll call you Mad Tiger now."  
  
The tiger laughed, raising an eyebrow, "I'm obviously that mad?"  
  
"As mad as I am," he said with a nod, brushing his hands over his pants before taking out the scepter and gun, giving the gun back to the Mad Tiger. The Mad Tiger looked all too pleased to have it back, examining it and nodding. He was ready to follow The Queen anywhere now, all for pulling him up out of his chair.  
  
It was quite the while that passed as The Mad Tiger and The Queen walked through the forest. There were so many things to behead and so much fun to have and such pretty lights to stare at; they were having a wonderful time. They saw many things and caused many things; they made a woman abandon her own baby to go to a grand party with a gun, they made an old, fat walrus crush eggs under his feet, they made more fruit along the way. It's a loyal Tiger that keeps a Queen fed.  
  
However, as time passed, The Queen began to notice something. There was more to be had. This was all fun, at least for a time it was, but there was something more. He wanted more, and the things around him obviously wanted more. It was all delicious, bloody fruit, but there could be more to be had. If only he could do something, if only The Queen could move beyond something.  
  
It had come to a crescendo when he met a cat, a very peculiar cat, and The Queen just threw his hands up in the air, repeating once more with much more fervor than before, "I'm bored! Why is this so boring! You're so boring!"  
  
The cat with the mop of dark hair, wrapped up only in a white sheet seemed bored as he sighed, stretched out on his branch with the gun of The Mad Tiger pointed at him. "I'm clever," he purred back, lazing about. "It's you who are broken."  
  
The Queen didn't want to hear that, glared at the cat. "I'm not broken, this world is broken! I want a new world, I want more than this." The Queen looked to his Mad Tiger, as if looking for an answer, but of course his Tiger would not have an answer. His Mad Tiger was many things, but he was not the answer.  
  
    "Hmm... I think I know what you want. It's the same thing I want sometimes," the shadowy cat wrapped up in the white sheet purred from the tops of the tree. Jim pushed his crown up a little farther on his head with his scepter. He started to tap his foot, expecting the cat to continue. But when it didn't, the Queen growled and pointed to the cat as he snapped his head toward the Mad Tiger.  
  
"Off with his head!"  
  
    The Mad Tiger was quick with his gun, quick with his shots, but he couldn't shoot what wasn't there. The Westminster Cat was blinking in and out of existence, there in one spot and gone the next in no particular order. It finally reappeared in some branches behind them, stretching hislegs out behind him and fingers curling around the edge of the sheet before he started to respond. Jim put up a hand to pause the firing, wanting to hear his words. "You want to live. I know a place where they're living today, supposedly a fun place to go," the Westminster cat finally continued in a bored tone.  
  
    Jim crossed his arms across his chest, tapping his foot again, "Tell me where it is, I want to live."  
  
    "You need to go home. It's there, you need to find it," the large cat purred, then turned his head calmly to the side. Someone new, a doormouse, carried what must have been a very heavy, bloody bit of meat for him to carry over to the Westminster Cat. It was grey, swirly, veiney, and it was dropped right in front of the large cat who purred but pawed at it as if uninterested.  
  
    "Don't give me that, you lazy cat. You need to eat; feed that head of yours," the smaller one dressed in the most ridiculous jumper admonished as he prodded at the cat. The cat just batted at the smaller one a little before grabbing his sheet and shifting it again.   
  
    The door mouse sighed, then looked to the Mad Tiger and nodded, "Colonel."  
  
    The Mad Tiger nodded back, "Captain."  
  
    The Queen blinked in surprise, then looked to the tiger with eyebrows furrowed, "Who's he?"  
  
    "My door mouse," the cat said from his branch as his fingers dug into the grey mass, pulling apart a thick, almost stringy bit and putting it in his mouth to eat. Jim turned again, looking up, putting his hands with scepter on his hips as the Westminster Cat continued. "He feeds me, makes sure I'm not bored. It's easy to get bored here nowadays. You should go and live, maybe you can change that."  
  
    Jim paused, looking down a moment, then nodded, starting forward under the cat's branch. He knew where to go, though he'd never been there before. Before he could get past the branch though, a hand hung down, holding a chunk of grey meat between his fingers. "We both have brains, we should feed them."  
  
    The Queen paused under the branch, looking at the offer and finally taking it into his mouth, chewing the nearly rubbery substance. Except it fell apart like fresh cornbread, tasted like brown sugar and funny blood and real copper pennies and wine. The cat continued, "You know what they say? If you live, you end the entire world. Do you know that?"  
  
The Queen paused for a moment, then continued, "Why do you keep a door mouse? You could kill him in a second."  
  
The cat shrugged a little, "Why didn't you kill your tiger?"  
  
The Queen shook his head, giving him a look and sounding petulant, "I'm nothing at all like you." Then, he gestured for the tiger to follow as he continued down the new path he knew. He would find his home and he would live, no matter what he would have to do.   
  
The Queen and The Mad Tiger eventually saw a very large castle surrounded by a large, open garden. Many wonderful things were happening in this garden, it was a good place. People danced with corpses, if they wanted, others took short flights, if they wanted, others drank from fountains, if they wanted. If they wanted, people could have all of the golden fruit and soft tiramisu and nails they wanted, till they were covered in dark red blood, if they wanted. But no one was laughing. It was good, all of it was good, but no one laughed. Everyone stopped short, because that's what it was. No one was living.  
  
The Queen looked about, laughing a little at the things he saw because they gave him some bit of delight, but it was starting to become forced. He wanted more, and he swore that he would have more. He opened the large front doors, revealing a large, lavish palace covered in pools of blood, some intestine hanging from the walls, somewhere some music was playing that didn't matter, just as this blood didn't matter.  
  
The Queen looked around, stopping in the middle of the entrance room right before a large staircase leading up. He turned to The Mad Tiger and he looked sad, desperate almost, and a queen was never supposed to be desperate, never. "Why? Why isn't this like it was, Tiger? I want to live, I really do." Then The Mad Tiger started to look sad and The Queen shook him as best as he could, yelling and snarling at him.  
  
"NO! DON'T look sad, don't EVER look sad, DON'T! Don't be boring, don't be boring, don't be boring..." The Tiger didn't move much when he was shook, being as large as he was.   
  
He listened to The Queen and perked his ears back up, giving a small nod. "The Queen lives here. Lives up the stairs in his throne room, on his throne."  
  
The Queen looked confused by this, tipping his head to the side a little, letting go of his Tiger. "But I'm The Queen." The Tiger didn't hesitate in nodding, saying that The Queen was The Queen, but it was clear he knew something more. Something that wasn't really anything because it was the truth of what he said. The Queen was The Queen.  
  
He nodded to his Tiger once more, turning and wasting no time in walking up the stairs, followed closely by his Tiger. The Queen would live, and he knew he would live by walking into this throne room and meeting The Queen. He wasted no time in pushing the doors open hard, taking in the room.   
Oh my, wasn't it very beautiful, at the heart of it all where the people here seemed so ravenous as they ate another, sometimes themselves. Some were just brutal with one another as they fought for no reason and riding trails for reasons. So much fruit to eat that people did not eat it any more, but instead it had started to rot. It was everywhere, but still no one laughed. Except for one.  
  
That one was The Red Queen, who looked so very much like The Queen of Hearts, except in an armor of Westwood rather than a crown and robe. He was laughing because he was content with this. He had brought things as far as they could be while not living, and The Queen of Hearts was not happy with this anymore. However, The Queen of Hearts was not the first to speak.  
  
"You don't know what you want," The Red Queen purred in a sing song as he stood from his throne, walking over to The Queen of Hearts as he readjusted his suit jacket. "You want to live, but I'm the one who lives. I control everything here, I even control you." The Red Queen stepped very close to The Queen of Hearts, who glared at him evenly. No, The Queen of Hearts, the queen of passion and desire, the queen that wanted everything as hot and fast as it could go, did not like him now.  
  
"You stop, you got boring. I want to live, I want to have everything I want," The Queen of Hearts spoke evenly, defiantly because this was one thing he had to be truly defiant to.   
  
"And I don't want this to end," The Red Queen gestured to the room, to the windows, to everything. "The world ends without me, you know. You would end the world. I don't want it to stop, why would I want things to stop?"  
  
"Are you afraid?" The Queen of Hearts dared The Red Queen, the queen of control and limits, the queen that knew the burnouts and knew the bullets enough to avoid them. "I'm not afraid, you know. If I want to end the world, I want to end it, and it will be so much fun."   
  
"Until it is not," The Red Queen countered, almost looking frustrated. And the Mad Tiger stood there, almost forgotten, but the gun was always important wasn't it?  
  
"Give me the gun," both Queens spoke at the same time, looking to The Mad Tiger, both with free hand held out while the other hand held either a scepter or a mobile phone. The Tiger was always important wasn't he, and maybe it was less about The Mad Tiger's decision and more about The Queen's decision.   
  
"Give me the gun," The Queen of Hearts repeated, still looking to the Tiger. The Tiger paused only for a moment more before placing his gun in the hands of The Queen of Hearts. It was easy after that, so easy. He aimed the gun at The Red Queen's head and pulled the trigger, splattering his pretty brain all over the floor. And The Queen of Hearts couldn't be happier as he handed the gun back to The Mad Tiger.  
  
    The Queen of Hearts took the stairs swiftly, bloody robe leaving drag marks from the bottom edge. There was laughing now, more laughing and more blood as it pooled in the corners of the room. Some were starting to have their fingers eaten by others, some dug deeper, some pulled harder, and still there was laughing. Some simply did not care and knives carved into their own flesh, twisting and turning, and still there was laughing.  
  
    He turned at the top of the stairs, grinning as he surveyed the room, his kingdom. There was happiness somehow, happiness had returned to his kingdom. Everything was as it should be; there was living. Living, living as it should be. The Queen of Hearts settled elegantly on his cushioned chair, sighing as he reclined, crown slightly askew, leg thrown over one of the arms of the chair. His eyes were only for his living now.  
  
    The Mad Tiger watched all of this, in something mixed between reverence and his usual calm. Things were all normal now, weren't they? The Mad Tiger bowed low with bended knee at the foot of the stairs. The Queen of Heart's eyes were drawn away from his kingdom and to the Mad Tiger, who rose and ascended.  
  
    "This is living now. This all is going to end soon," the executioner spoke as he took the last couple of stairs. He came closer to the chair, looking down to look up at The Queen of Hearts. His Highness gave a small nod, gesturing with his scepter around the room, laughter continuing to filter through. No one in the room could help but smile with such happiness.  
  
    "So it does," the Queen of Hearts nodded, speaking to the other man only, "No more death, no more slowing. Everything at once; we can't survive this."   
  
    The Mad Tiger nodded, "You're the Queen now. I'm here, as your executioner until I'm not." He looked around the room, assuring that he would not have to eat someone for coming too close to The Queen. The Tiger looked back to the throne, to the Queen.  
  
    "I love you," the tiger spoke casually, as if commenting on a painting he didn't know anything about. The Queen of Hearts blinked, eyebrows raised a little before he shook his head, laughing.  
  
    "How? How can you love me?"  
  
    "How can't I? You can take everything now. I can be the one to give you everything."  
  
    A curious prospect indeed, and the Queen of Hearts seemed to think on this. It made sense, perhaps, but there was one large hole in his logic. "Mad people don't love, Mad Tiger. Normal people love, and you're as mad as I am."  
  
    The tiger looked to the room again, nodding to it, "Everyone is mad here. That makes you normal. In order to be mad now, you have to be normal. You could even be normal for a little bit, for thirty three seconds."   
  
    The Queen of Hearts looked a little worried now, his eyes on the Mad Tiger. To be normal by being mad is normal, but being mad is not being normal, so what was a Queen to do? What did he want? He wanted everything he wanted, perhaps he could do both? The Queen gave a grin, "For seconds, I will be normal. But what could we possibly do in such short time?"  
  
    The Mad Tiger knelt again, but this time on both knees, close enough to the throne to touch it with the front of his thighs. The Queen of Hearts regarded him, and here, The Tiger chuckled softly, reminding him once again, "You probably don't even hear it when it happens, right?" He smiled. Both were still smiling, everyone was smiling now. He looked around at his kingdom again, then back to his Tiger. He leaned forward then, sliding a hand under his large hat through his hair. His other arm came around his shoulders, lips co  
  
. . . . . . . . . .  
  



End file.
